Delegation Can Make You an Expert for Your Church

When a college athlete is drafted by a professional sports there are expectations. He is brought in to be the expert at his position and bring value and worth to the team. The desire is that the player’s contributions will translate into more wins.

You are no different. Regardless of how you arrived at your current job, you have been added to the team to be the expert in your area. Instead of adding literal wins to your team, you are hired to transform lives. Those are your wins.

What Makes an Expert
The difference between being knowledgeable and being an expert in any area is a sharp, narrow focus. Without a sharp, narrow focus, it is impossible to realize and embrace your expertise. I can hear you right now: “But I don’t have one area of responsibility at work, I have three… and they are all unrelated.” And sometimes they’re in different departments. And sometimes your job title sounds like a joke because it only covers a quarter of the work you actually do.

Regardless of the extra responsibility you’ve been saddled with, you need to find a way to embrace your passion and become the expert your organization needs. It starts by going through the following steps to help you narrow your focus:

1. Define Your Roles

Write down all the roles you are currently asked to fill.

Place the roles in order those you are most passionate about to least passionate about.

Anything below the top two roles need to come off your plate.

2. Define What Only You Can Do

Write down your current responsibilities and circle those roles which only you can do. Roles that can’t be outsourced, delegated or deleted.

3. Define Who You Can Delegate To

Look at the items which are not circled and write down a name next to each responsibility of who would be the best to do that task. Think of current staff members, volunteers, family members, contracted workers, etc. Don’t be afraid to write down your dream team. Remember, never say no for someone else. Always let them decide whether to say yes or no.

After you have completed this exercise it is important for you to share your work with your direct supervisor. Communicate to that person the roles you wish to delegate, to whom you wish to delegate them to and how you plan to supervise those you’ve delegated to. The most important part will be to demonstrate how all of this will produce better results and allow you to be better at your job.

Focus on Your Area of Expertise
Being the expert your church needs comes down to this: maintain what is working but look to innovate. Do research on how to do your job better. Find authors (blog and books) who inspire you to think of new and creative ways to do your job.

Don’t let the feeling of being overwhelmed or having zero support stop you from developing your expertise. God will honor your commitment to become who he has designed you to be. Trust me, he has a job in mind where you will shine like the stars.

We owe it to the big “C” Church to become well educated in our roles so that we can add more wins to the church… which means more lives transformed by Jesus!

Overcoming the Resistance
There is no debating that this process is time and thought intensive. It will require diligent effort on your part. As you consider the thoughts above, which part stands out as the resistance you will need to overcome?

Dave Shrein

Dave Shrein is the owner of Shrein Media, LLC and helps churches and small businesses communicate their big picture effectively through their website, email, and social media. You can discover more digital marketing training on his website, DaveShrein.com.

Noreen, I know the feeling. I really do. In my job I am responsible for IT, design, communications, print, web, planning center, resource reservation system and church database. I have 2 PT employees that offer me between 25-35 hours a week total.

Everything below my top two roles, I have build a team of volunteers to take over. It has been a long process and not always smooth but I’ve got no choice but to try and leverage the talents of those in the church. If you’d like to carry on a further dialogue, please email me, dave at daveshrein dot com.